Heroin, fentanyl mix feared after two Fayetteville women hospitalized

Wednesday

Feb 26, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2014 at 7:11 AM

By Nathan Hardin Staff writer

Dwayne Fisher said he saw white powder around his fiancee's nose.

After getting a brief phone call about 1 p.m. Monday, Fisher said, he rushed into his Wilson Avenue mobile home and hoisted the 42-year-old and her friend from the burgundy bedroom carpet and onto a nearby mattress.

Moments earlier, she had phoned Fisher about a drug delivery, he said. The line went dead after a few words.

Once on the bed, Fisher could see powder residue around her nose, he said.

Fentanyl, he recalled, was supposed to arrive in a package. A white envelope sat on the dresser.

Fisher's fiance is one of two women who were overcome Monday and later hospitalized by a powder received in the mail, according to Fayetteville Police. The incident is still being investigated, as the women recover in the hospital.

At a news conference Tuesday, Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock said investigators have not been able to confirm the substance as the drug heroin laced with fentanyl - a deadly synthetic mix that authorities say is significantly more powerful than regular heroin. But Medlock said he "certainly" thinks it is.

If so, Monday's near-overdoses mark the first appearance of the "cocktail" drug in Fayetteville, Medlock said.

He called the trend "very disturbing."

"Certainly it's a very worrisome thing for us," Medlock said.

Fentanyl-laced heroin is blamed for three deaths last month in Sampson, Person and Transylvania counties.

Some police departments in the Northeast, Medlock said, carry field kits with drug antidotes. He said he will consider equipping officers with the solution.

A similar antidote was given to the two women at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center on Monday, Medlock said, but he stopped short of saying the solution was naloxone, the emergency antidote.

"Yesterday afternoon, they were given at the hospital a substance that normally would bring - I don't know what the drug is that they were given at the hospital, but it is something that was given to revive them," Medlock said.

The women, who were pulled unconscious from the home off Bunce Road, are improving, Medlock said. No charges have been filed, Medlock said. He declined to identify the women.

Initial reports Monday indicated that the women opened a suspicious package containing a substance that rendered them unresponsive.

Because of that, the Fire Departments Hazardous Material team was called to set up an area for decontamination, Battalion Chief Calvin Bishop said Wednesday.

The Fire Department and Hazardous Material teams used the procedures that were put into place to deal with weapons of mass destruction, Bishop said.

"Safety comes first," he said.

A small vial believed to have carried the drug was seized in the investigation, Medlock said.

The two children were in the home, said Sgt. Manuel DeJesus, Fayetteville police spokesman. They were turned over to family members, DeJesus said.

Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said cheap heroin and the rising popularity of fentanyl could make fentanyl-laced heroin a growing problem.

"We've known for some time that addicts would take those fentanyl patches and chew them," Thornton said, adding that the county's recent overdose was the first time he's encountered the synthetic mix.

Now, addicts may be moving to the stronger - and deadlier - combination.

Break-in reports, he said, show fentanyl, like other opiates, is a constant target for thieves.

"The thing about heroin that most people don't realize, when you inject that stuff, it immediately goes to your brain," Thornton said. "If the brain tells your heart to stop beating, it's going to stop beating."

Thornton said his department has had three major heroin seizures on Interstate 40 in recent years. The drugs, he said, were en route to Wilmington.

"Maybe it's some regional distribution area," he said. "They have a lot of gang problems in New Hanover. It could go elsewhere - either south or north. You just don't know where it's destined."

For three days, Dwayne Fisher said, his fiancee and her friend, a 24-year-old who lived with them on Wilson Avenue, talked about a package that was set to be delivered to the home.

"'I talked to a friend, and he said he's sending me a sample of something,'" Fisher recalled one of the women saying.

Fisher said his fiancee had been in a severe car crash about 10 years ago. According to Fisher, she took a number of prescription pills daily to offset the pain.

He planned to intercept the package when it came in the mail, Fisher said, but he had a doctor's appointment Monday afternoon.

After the phone went silent, Fisher said he continued calling until his 5-year-old grandson picked up.

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